Re-interpretation of Creative Thinking Process in Studying Iranian Urban Development Principle

Iranian cities throughout the process of establishment and evolution during long centuries have been confronted with changes and transformations; however aside from facing the changes, the cities have been evolved and created a sustainable development framework. Throughout the nineteenth century and into the twentieth, Iranian cities expanded but continued to display the traditional features of an integrated city, adhering to traditional kinds of social and spatial organization. However, from early decades of this century, Iranian cities were radically transformed by the authoritarian modernization of Reza Shah (1925-41) and from the late 1960s through the 1970s, saw the rise of a new wave of modernization - Westernization that accelerated the process of transformation of the social and physical environment of cities. The outcome of the first intervention was the emergence of ‘urban dualism’, a tense coexistence of old and new. The result of second phase of transformation was an immense growth of population and massive immigration which contributed to the rapid and dramatic physical expansion of the cities. Urban sprawl intensified the problems of the historic centers. The old cores became a small part of the sprawling cities and lost their previous physical and functional importance. The consequences of these transformations have been growth of urban poverty, decreasing the quality of life and socio-spatial inequity in the cities. In order to find out the mechanism and solution to improve the quality of life and decrease the urban problems, it is necessary to re-study and re-interpret the cities and sustainable and resilient model of urban development in the past centuries. This paper aims to review the main resources and documents that introduce the finding of their studies through re-interpretation of Iranian city development and presents a framework for urban policy making authorities and researcher.